Telling Stories – Releasing P aradoxes Narratives and the Renewal of Public Governance

1. Telling Stories– ReleasingParadoxesNarratives and the Renewal of Public Governance Copenhagen August 16 2012

2. New Austerity and the need of authenticdialogue “Cut costs and improve quality” Freezing dilemmas The rhetoric of double messages Constructs wicked problems and squeezes Conducts dilemma games Double Binds & Desperate Governance “Trust and control” “Standards and flexibility” Un-freezing dilemmas Sharing complexity and paradoxes Allowing new rationales to emerge Transforming the community – building trust Narrative practice

3. Contents • The languages of governance • Prescriptive languages • Causal languages • Narrative languages • Case: The regime of competence in preschool education • Learning plans, programme theory, and learning stories • Inclusion and exclusion • Transforming the community • The problem of aggregation • Bureaucratization of narrative practice? • Narrativity and Autenticity

4. Languages of Governance Narrative Plot – CounterPlot Causal Cause - Effect Prescriptive Norm - Deviation

5. Institutional history Narrative Innovative Leadership 1990+ Causal Effective Administration and Planning 1930 + Prescriptive The Birth of Bureaucracy 1900 +

6. Interdependence Narrative Constitutes a field of actors, relation, strategies Dramatic logic Causal Prescriptive Constitutes formal and abstract representations Linear logic

7. Meaning of Paradoxes Narrative Creative and dynamic principle Causal Breakdown of linear causality Prescriptive Breakdown of order

8. Rationality Narrative Transformative rationality Causal Reflective Rationality Prescriptive Simple rationality

9. Pre-Schools:Defining performance Functional approach Performance Learning as transfer of knowledge and skills Professionals “do something” to the children • Existential approach • Being • Learning as dialogue • forming identities and communities • Professionals involved in an existential • collaboration with children

10. Pre-Schools:Inclusion – Changing the Story Functional approach The problem inherent in the individual child Diagnosis Protecting and compensating the child Existential approach The problem as an emergent phenomenon Diagnosis-in-context Developing the community Narrative methodology: Externalizing problems, Introducing counter-plots, and witnessing the unique

11. Pre-Schools:Defining performance Learning stories Understanding situations and experiences Narrative measures Causal measures Programme-theory Causal hypotheses: Learning enviroment and effects Prescriptive measures Learning plans Themes, objectives, plans

12. Pre-Schools: Transforming the Community Professional Children Professional Institution Parents Institution User Commitees Consultations District District Experts Local Agency Local Agency Citizens City Council City Council

13. Pre-Schools: Aggregating Narratives Primary Narratives Communities of Evaluation Meta- Narratives

14. Bureaucratization of Narrative Practice • Narratives reflecting norms, not experience • Smooth narratives • Narrative templates • Quantative measures on the production of narratives • The use of narrative methodology becomes predictable and rutinized How can we nurture an authentic practice?

15. Narrativity and Authenticity Authenticity: • A quality emerging in conversations (not a personality trait!) • Openness to complexity and paradoxes • Using a language genuin and relevant to participants • Free-floating and spontaneous Conditions • Invite and recognise narratives that are messy and un-smooth • Focus on border situations and dilemmas • Follow emerging themes • Invite new participants and perspectives • Avoid too disciplined, schooled, and technical approaches

16. Narrativity and Authenticity Narratives and Performance Dialogue • Simplicity in structure: • Few and meaningful objectives • Clear and non-humiliating feedback • Reduction of distracting elements • Handling crisis with care and prudence • Richness in dialogue • Pluralist approach – combining prescriptive, causal, and narrative thes • Trust as discipline